Best of the Web:


Nuke

Best of the Web: 'Chernobyl' is a blast of a TV series - but don't call it 'authentic'

Chernobyl
© 'Chernobyl' HBO / Liam Daniel
Building film sets out of old Soviet buildings is easier than understanding the people who inhabited them - and the hit HBO show doesn't grasp either why the nuclear accident was allowed to happen, or the heroism that followed.

Authenticity is not an essential virtue even for a docudrama, but it has been one of the main selling points of Chernobyl, the five-part mini-series that is currently the highest-ever rated TV program on film database IMDB.

Now, my qualms aren't with the factual inaccuracies, the creation of Emily Watson's fictional female scientist in place of the thousands of women actually involved, or the squeezing of such a grand-scale, multi-faceted story into what is, for the most part, a disaster film with two leads.

Chess

Best of the Web: Putin and Xi step up the strategic game

xi putin
© Dmitri Lovetsky / AFPRussian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping get friendly at a ceremony to present Xi with a degree from the St Petersburg State University on June 6.
A single image epitomizes the hurricane at the center of the current geopolitical chessboard: an extremely affectionate handshake between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

The image crystallizes the stuff of nightmares by those in the US that still follow the Eurasian prophecies of Halford Mackinder and his disciples, such as the late Zbigniew "Grand Chessboard" Brzezinski, that focused on the imperative of preventing the emergence of a peer competitor in Eurasia.

The peer competitor has emerged, in full: the Russia-China strategic partnership.

On Wednesday, Xi said at the Kremlin this was his eighth trip to Russia since 2013 - when the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), were announced. And he added he and Putin had met "almost 30 times" since then.

Comment: See also:


MIB

Flashback Best of the Web: The Deep State vs Public Govt: The battle between Austria's intelligence agencies and the Freedom Party


Comment: In the aftermath of the political assassination midway through last month that removed the Freedom Party from the Austrian government - and then the whole government itself - it's worth taking a closer look at what was going on in (and around) that country in the lead-up to it...


strache rally austria
© Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAustria’s deputy chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, at a rally in Vienna in April. 3 weeks later, he was taken out in a political assassination, which Austria's security services played a central role in...
As well as anyone, Sybille Geissler knows the threats from Austria's far-right extremists, who in recent weeks have likened migrants to rats and blithely defended campaign material that evokes Nazi propaganda.

For over 12 years, she has led the anti-extremism unit of the domestic intelligence service, and recently testified in a parliamentary inquiry into whether the far right was trying to undermine her agency.

Her biggest challenge these days, her testimony suggests, is that the far right is part of her own government.

Shortly after the far-right Freedom Party joined the government 17 months ago, taking over the powerful Interior Ministry, the ministry's top official asked Ms. Geissler and her boss to turn over the names of informants who had infiltrated the far-right scene.

They refused. Just weeks later, armed police burst into her office and carted away years' worth of domestic files as well as intelligence from allied nations.

The consequences continue to reverberate through the country's politics and beyond, and have made Austria an important test of what happens when the far right moves from the political fringe to the halls of power.


Comment: Indeed, and, as we've seen, when that happens, 'allied nations' rise to the occasion and take 'executive measures'...

Comment: Indeed, they're reinforcing their network from 'contamination' by nationalists, conservatives and 'pro-Russians'.

In short, normal people!


Books

Flashback Best of the Web: Soviets say Allied version of D-Day is a 'distortion' of history


Comment: This article was written on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France. 35 years later, the Russian version of WW2 is still the correct one, while the Western version is being propped up with ever-grander ceremonies...


D-Day landings photo
D-Day, 6 June 1944
Tomorrow, the leaders of many Western nations will gather on the shores of Normandy to observe the 40th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe.

But the Soviet Union, meanwhile, is engaged in a major effort to belittle the contribution of Western countries during World War II.

The campaign, involving many organs of the government-controlled press here, holds that Western powers delayed the invasion in order to allow the Germans time to inflict more damage on the Soviet Union - and only belatedly mounted the Normandy invasion to grab part of the credit for defeating Hitler.

Comment: And from a 2004 article ('D-Day and the truth about the Second World War'):
In August 1942, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff drew up a document that said:
"In World War II, Russia occupies a dominant position and is the decisive factor looking toward the defeat of the Axis in Europe. While in Sicily the forces of Great Britain and the USA are being opposed by 2 German divisions, the Russian front is receiving the attention of approximately 200 German divisions. Whenever the Allies open a second front on the Continent, it will be decidedly a secondary front to that of Russia; theirs will continue to be the main effort. Without Russia in the war, the Axis cannot be defeated in Europe, and the position of the United Nations becomes precarious." (quoted in V. Sipols, The Road to Great Victory, p. 133.)
These words accurately express the real position that existed at the time of the D-day landings. Yet an entirely different (and false) version of the war is assiduously being cultivated in the media today.

The truth is that the war against Hitler in Europe was fought mainly by the USSR and the Red Army. For most of the war, the British and Americans were mere spectators...
Shades of Syria, where Russian soldiers did the dying in the war against 'ISIS', but the Americans claimed the glory...


Biohazard

Best of the Web: How Monsanto manipulates journalists and academics

Roundup
© Mike Blake/Reuters

Monsanto's own emails and documents reveal a disinformation campaign to hide its weedkiller's possible links to cancer.


Over the past year, evidence of Monsanto's deceptive efforts to defend the safety of its top-selling Roundup herbicide have been laid bare for all to see. Through three civil trials, the public release of internal corporate communications has revealed conduct that all three juries have found so unethical as to warrant punishing punitive damage awards.

Much attention has been paid to Monsanto conversations in which company scientists casually discuss ghostwriting scientific papers and suppressing science that conflicts with corporate assertions of Roundup's safety. There has also been public outrage over internal records illustrating cozy relationships with friendly regulators which border on - and possibly cross into - collusion.

Comment: The above is only part of the reason Monsanto (Bayer) should be considered for the Lifetime Acheivement in Planetary Evil award. They are, quite simply, despicable and psychopathic, stopping at nothing to maintain the illusion that their products are safe, injuring and killing millions in the process. The murky, under-handed corporate espionage is simply jaw-dropping. And yet the EPA still recognizes glyphosate as "extremely safe". Nothing to worry about here, obviously.

See also:


Snakes in Suits

Best of the Web: United States of Delusion! Senate unanimously passes 'DETER' bill to deny entry to 'individuals who meddle in US elections'


Comment: In short, anyone with opinions the Feds don't like...


lindsey graham
Who's a clever boy?
The Senate cleared legislation on Monday night to block individuals who meddle in U.S. elections from being able to enter the United States. The legislation, known as the Defending Elections from Threats by Establishing Redlines Act (DETER Act), easily passed the Senate by unanimous consent - a move that any one senator could have blocked.

The bill, spearheaded by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Dick Durbin(D-Ill.), would block individuals from being able to obtain a visa if they were attempting to or had engaged in "improper interference in U.S. elections."


Comment: Southern Gentleman Lindsey. Why are we not surprised.


According to the legislation, that would include violating voting or campaign finance laws or trying to interfere in elections or a campaign while under the direction of a foreign government.

Comment: Combine this with the recently-introduced requirement that all visa applicants must hand over their social media passwords and what do you have?

The perfect Orwellian set-up!

The Russian government is mercilessly mocking Lindsey's law:


"This is probably the first act in history aimed at protecting against fairytale characters - not only because of the original meaning of the word 'troll,' but also because the role of foreign internet interference in the American electoral process has been blown out of proportion in Washington," Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, wrote on his Facebook page.



It's already the case in the US that it you want a job, you hand over your social media passwords. Now they've got a leash on foreigners.

Above all, it is mission-critical for the owners of the United States of Delusion to maintain the delusion, and that requires blocking 'foreign information' from 'corrupting our values and our way of life'...


Question

Best of the Web: How did Russiagate begin?

trump
© REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
Why Barr's investigation is important and should be encouraged

It cannot be emphasized too often: Russiagate - allegations that the American president has been compromised by the Kremlin and which may even have helped to put him in the White House - is the worst and (considering the lack of actual evidence) most fraudulent political scandal in American history. We have yet to calculate the damage Russiagate has inflicted on America's democratic institutions, including the presidency and the electoral process, and on domestic and foreign perceptions of American democracy, or on US-Russian relations at a critical moment when both sides, having "modernized" their nuclear weapons, are embarking on a new, more dangerous, and largely unreported arms race.

Rational (if politically innocent) observers may have thought that when the Mueller Report found no "collusion" or other conspiracy between Trump and Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, only possible "obstruction" by Trump - nothing Mueller said in his May 29 press statement altered that conclusion - Russiagate would fade away. If so, they were badly mistaken. Evidently infuriated that Mueller did not liberate the White House from Trump, Russiagate promoters - liberal Democrats and progressives foremost among them - have only redoubled their unverified collusion allegations, even in once-respectable media outlets. Whether out of political ambition or impassioned faith, the damage wrought by these Russiagaters continues to mount, with no end in sight.

UFO

Best of the Web: Former US defense official: 'We know UFOs exist, the issue is why are they here?'

Christopher Mellon UFO's
Christopher Mellon during his top-level clearance days, an Area 51 sign and CGI
After a bombshell report detailing near-daily interactions with unidentified flying objects by Navy pilots in 2014 and 2015, Christopher Mellon has argued that this information is nothing new, and the government needs to do something about it.

Mellon, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, is involved with a new History Channel series, 'Unidentified,' which will expand on topics discussed in a recent New York Times article. In numerous interviews, Navy pilots revealed that they saw UFOs moving at hypersonic speeds, performing acts "beyond the physical limits of a human crew," and emitting "no visible engine or infrared exhaust plumes."

In a Wednesday morning interview with "Fox & Friends," Mellon, who has written extensively on the topic before, outlined the reasons the Navy is concerned about these sightings.

"We know that UFOs exist. This is no longer an issue," he said. "The issue is why are they here? Where are they coming from and what is the technology behind these devices that we are observing?"


Comment: This interview continues a recent push by "authority figures" in government and media discussing UFOs. There is clearly a push by those in power to begin the acceptance of other life forms in the universe by the general public. The question is, why?

What The Hell Is Going On With UFOs And The Department Of Defense?
On the other hand, putting a possible goal of disclosure aside, there is also a very real reason why the Pentagon would want the idea of UFOs injected back into the public's consciousness and even to add validity to it. Doing so is in itself a very old chapter in Uncle Sam's information warfare playbook.[...]

As I have said over and over again, the sky, and the things we are accustomed to seeing inhabiting it, is going to look increasingly different in the very near term. Hypersonics, drone swarms, directed energy weapons, and a full-on emerging arms race in space are just some of the very real activities and technologies that will dominate the near future of American weapons development. The products of all of these initiatives, once manifested, could appear positively alien to curious bystanders.

The military will be able to explain some of this, but some of it they won't. So, reinvigorating the presence of UFOs in the American psyche by adding heaps of validity to the topic on an official level and possibly also on a less than official level (To The Stars Academy for instance) can help keep secret programs that grace the skies just that, secret. And who knows, that list of programs and technologies could include the very Tic Tac and other bizarrely shaped craft that can defy imagination with their aerial feats that have been spotted and even recorded in recent years. In fact, if the U.S. military has such a capability, the UFO cover story would be imperative to keeping the nature of its existence under wraps.
See also:


Control Panel

Best of the Web: Why Half The Western World is Disinformed And How Global News Agencies And Establishment Media Report on Geopolitics

propaganda
By Swiss Propaganda Research: It is one of the most important aspects of our media system, and yet hardly known to the public: most of the international news coverage in Western media is provided by only three global news agencies based in New York, London and Paris.

The key role played by these agencies means Western media often report on the same topics, even using the same wording. In addition, governments, military and intelligence services use these global news agencies as multipliers to spread their messages around the world.

A study of the Syria war coverage by nine leading European newspapers clearly illustrates these issues: 78% of all articles were based in whole or in part on agency reports, yet 0% on investigative research. Moreover, 82% of all opinion pieces and interviews were in favour of the US and NATO intervention, while propaganda was attributed exclusively to the opposite side.

"Something strange"

"How does the newspaper know what it knows?" The answer to this question is likely to surprise some newspaper readers: "The main source of information is stories from news agencies. The almost anonymously operating news agencies are in a way the key to world events. So what are the names of these agencies, how do they work and who finances them? To judge how well one is informed about events in East and West, one should know the answers to these questions." (Höhne 1977, p. 11)

A Swiss media researcher points out: "The news agencies are the most important suppliers of material to mass media. No daily media outlet can manage without them. () So the news agencies influence our image of the world; above all, we get to know what they have selected." (Blum 1995, p. 9)

Cross

Best of the Web: Orthodox crescent of instability

arc of instability orthodox
© South Front
The US continues its practice of creating zones and lines of chaos in key regions of the world. In the 2000s, it started a campaign to create an arc of instability stretching from Northern Africa to the east of the Central Asia. Now, more and more signals appear showing that there is a new project - to create a crescent of instability in Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

These campaigns actively exploited the religious factor in an attempt to undermine and discredit traditional religious systems. In the case of the Middle East, the target is Sunni Islam. It is being targeted by instigating various Islamic sects. In Eastern and Southeastern Europe, various artificial schismatic groups are used to combat the canonical Orthodox Church. In both cases, foreign powers have also been exploiting and supporting exotic sects, new-age-style beliefs and other "neo-liberal" constructs.

On May 24, U.S. Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople to discuss the upcoming visit of the patriarch to Washington and the role of Constantinople in Ukraine and "across the wider Orthodox world".

Comment: Ideally the dark players would like to usurp religion, but they'll settle for outright chaos and the rupture of over a millenia of tradition: Also check out SOTT radio's: The Truth Perspective: The Stoic Roots of Christianity: Self-Transcendence Through Meaning and Responsibility